RSA CE&C 2015-2021 Group descriptions

Chemical and Process Technology (CPT) 9 In chemical-looping combustion/reforming, air separation and CO 2 capture are integrated while making effective use of oxygen transport via solid carriers, allowing for electricity or hydrogen production while making a downstream CO 2 capture process superfluous. Both fluidized bed reactor systems and the dynamically-operated packed bed process developed in-house (which has received quite some international attention) have been intensively studied for both electricity production via the combustion of fossil fuels (natural gas and syngas produced from coal or biomass gasification), the production of synthetic natural gas via the oxidative gasification of biomass (including oxygen uncoupling for chemical looping gasification) and the extension to a chemical looping steam iron process for the production of H 2 . We have also (further) developed and investigated sorption-enhanced processes that benefit from in-situ product adsorption. Specifically, water-gas shift (SEWGS), methane steam reforming (both via the fixed bed Ca-Cu process and fluidized bed calcium-looping processes) and dimethyl ether synthesis (SEDMES) have been investigated through both conceptual design with advanced modeling tools and experimental demonstration to provide a proof of principle. Finally, reactive absorption and extraction processes are also being developed using novel bio-based designer solvents, such as deep eutectic solvents (DES), which can be applied in liquid-supported membranes. 2. Advanced heat integration In the context of reactive cooling, we have developed a rapid cycling reverse flow reactor to couple endothermic propane dehydrogenation with the exothermic combustion of methane, a packed bed membrane reactor with a dual function catalyst to couple the oxidative coupling and steam reforming of methane and the Cu-Ca process for sorption- enhanced steam methane reforming coupled with chemical looping. We have developed a novel process for the cryogenic separation of CO 2 from flue gasses or biogas (e.g., by exploiting the available cold duty from LNG expansion) using dynamically operated packed beds, which has resulted in two patent applications. In addition, we study the cooling of gas-phase polymerization (polypropylene, polyethylene) reactors through liquid injection (so-called condensed mode operation), where we focus on the effects of the presence of the liquid on the fluidization behavior and reactor performance and, in particular, on how small liquid droplets move through groups of particles and the rate of liquid evaporation. In recent years, we have redirected our attention to investigate the integration of inductive and direct electrical heating of chemical reactors. 3. Fundamental understanding of integrated multiphase reactors Our group has a long history of the development and application of novel, experimental non-invasive techniques for multiphase flow combined with high-temperature and reactive conditions. In recent years, we have developed a combined infrared/particle image velocimetry and digital image analysis technique (IR/PIV/DIA) and endoscopic high- temperature PIV (ePIV). These techniques have been used in various projects to investigate the fundamentals of fluidized reactors under industrially relevant conditions. For a rational design of multiphase multifunctional reactors, quantitatively predictive reactor models are required. Our research focuses on the development and improvement of coarse- grained and phenomenological models for large-scale reactors and the extension towards reactive conditions. Thesemodels are improved through constitutive equations derived from more detailed models, such as Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid models (TFM) and (unresolved) Euler-Lagrange discrete particle simulations (CFD-DEM). We have consolidated our strong position in the modeling of fluidized beds by developing novel numerical algorithms to